Interview with Assoc. Prof. Selçuk Çolakoğlu, Head of USAK Center for Asia-Pacific Studies

Source here 

As a Mandalay-born dissident with deep roots in Buddhism, I find it revolting that thousands of Buddhist monks, human rights dissidents and the public in my hometown of Mandalay staged an anti-Rohingya rally this past weekend.

They mimicked the regime’s discourse that promotes “national security” and “national sovereignty”, while espousing an anachronistic view of blood-based citizenship as opposed to the notions of multicultural citizenship.

Where has the vociferous human rights rhetoric gone when it comes to the persecuted Rohingyas?

We listened in vain for the metronomic chants of the saffron-robed monks who defied threats and flooded the streets of Rangoon and other towns proclaiming their “loving kindness” for all sentient beings in 2007. Now the very same monks chant mantras supporting exclusive citizenship. When a mob protests against an ethnic group then, it is no longer a citizens’ protest. It is a Nazi rally.

Around the world supporters of democracy in Burma have been shocked by the “ethnic cleansing” of the Muslim Rohingyas in the impoverished settlements of western Arakan (Rakhine) state. These are the latest killing fields in a troubled land. Both perpetrators and victims tell of hundreds of Rohingyas, including women and children, being killed, raped, assaulted, detained and driven out by Burmese security forces.

In a typical self-serving reaction, President Thein Sein characterized the events in June as “communal violence.” By focusing exclusively on tensions between the Rohingyas and ethnic Arakanese Buddhists, the government is deliberately trying to conceal the role its own security forces played in the violence.

But the findings of a damning new Human Rights Watch report reveal a different picture. The language is unambiguous: “Burmese security forces committed killings, rape, and mass arrests against Rohingya Muslims after failing to protect both them and Arakan Buddhists,” states the report.

Of course, this doesn’t sit well with the Burmese regime’s new “reformist” image. Moving quickly to quell the international furore, a presidential adviser claimed that the government responded to the violence as quickly as it could. Human Rights Watch speaks of a different reality — of government restrictions on humanitarian access to the Rohingya community that have left “many of the more than 100,000 people displaced and in dire need of food, shelter, and medical care.”

To make a bad situation worse, the authorities in neighboring Bangladesh have now told international humanitarian agencies to stop providing aid to Rohingya refugees who fled Burma. It is precisely these provisions of emergency food and medicine that local Arakanese Buddhists are violently opposed to. As far as Arakanese extremists are concerned, “these animals must not be fed or allowed to exist on Burmese soil.”

While the government tries to shed its pariah status, the violence meted out to the vulnerable, stateless Rohingyas — and the populist, racist venom it has unleashed — should give pause to the rest of the world as to the true nature of the Burmese regime. Underneath the trope of “democratic reform” lie some unpalatable truths. Not content with reserved military powers in government, parliament, and national budgets and untrammelled executive control of national security, the regime has mobilized the full arsenal of a self-serving repressive junta to deny ethnic minority communities not just their rights to self-determination but also to their fundamental humanity. Fascism and militarism are the enduring handmaidens of this “new era” of politics.

So what does the ongoing violence against the Rohingyas tell us about the nature of political power and the men who still rule the country?

And, in turn, what does it herald for the prospects for real change, the rule of law, the expansion and consolidation of human rights, and the quality of public life?

There’s no denying that ethnic and political cleavages have deep roots in our turbulent history. But it is equally true that the current resurgence of racism — both official and popular — is a direct result of a half-century of despotic military rule.

The regime’s iron fist policies and its systematic rule by terror are now well enough known, even though there is already selective amnesia about the recent past. Equally important has been the careful construction of an iron cage — a monolithic constellation of values, an ethos — that locks in and naturalises a singular view of what constitutes Burma’s “national” culture. For Burmese society as a whole remains illiberal and potently ethno-nationalist.

“Burma has always been multiethnic and multicultural over the course of the past millennium.”

Deeply troubling is how popular, everyday forms of racism and the state’s fascism seem to be mutually reinforcing. This serves the generals’ interest very well. They have fully grasped the atavistic fears and instincts that drive great fault lines into the heart of society and politics. The dominant Burmese worldview continues to rest on an enervating combination of pre-colonial feudalism, religious mysticism, belief in racial purity and statist militarism. This is a potent and poisonous combination.

The military rulers have effectively preyed on this ethno-religious conservatism of the public at large, most specifically in times of political and legitimation crises. And the same appears true today even as they are praised for their cautious “opening up” of the country.

A full quarter of a century since Aung San Suu Kyi called for the “revolution of the spirit,” nothing spiritually progressive has taken root in the popular Burmese psyche. Sadly, this is the case even among many of the country’s noble dissidents. Burmese human rights defenders who spent half their lives in military jails, mantra-reciting Buddhist monks and the Burmese Buddhist diaspora all sing from the same song sheet on issues of race and minority rights.

Ironically, ethno-religious mobilization offers the military junta and its allies the chance to refashion themselves as the “defenders of the faith” and “protectors of Buddhist communities”— at least in the eyes of most Buddhists.

Never mind that these ex-generals were part of the very ruling clique who, during the saffron revolt, slaughtered hundreds of Buddhist monks and raided thousands of monasteries across the country in military-style operations only five years ago. Ethnic minorities continue to be the age-old enemy within. As always the justification for their repression is couched in the jailer’s language of ethno-cultural chauvinism and national security.

Of course, Buddhist privilege and embedded ethnic chauvinism bears little semblance to the country’s historical reality. Like most modern nation states, Burma has always been multiethnic and multicultural over the course of the past millennium.

Lying along trade routes between the great Indian and Chinese civilizations, the country has attracted a steady flow of settlers throughout its history. Even our predominant belief system, Buddhism, was a settler religion, which arrived on our soil centuries ago. Our pre-colonial feudal courts, farming communities, merchant classes, cultural teachers and scholars have always come from many different cultural and ethnic groups, both indigenous and foreign.

There are pockets of Burmese citizens, of different faiths and ethnic backgrounds, who fully appreciate our cultural, religious and ethnic diversity and consider it a great strength. But the voices — both inside Burma and in the diaspora — calling for genuine ethnic peace and reconciliation are currently being drowned out by the loud chorus of ethnic fanaticism.

It is no surprise, of course, that this reactionary refrain is constantly articulated in state media and the presidential office in Naypyidaw. But it is equally pervasive in the Burmese and English language social media where the language of hatred has even fewer constraints.

These are troubling times. Despite the rush to embrace the “reform” process and the optimism surrounding a “new era” of politics, the deepening of sectarian strife is a very real possibility. The drumbeat of everyday forms of populist racism and the state’s carefully calibrated ideology of closeted fascism is becoming louder and louder. The direction in which the country is currently heading remains both uncertain and disquieting.

The time is opportune for progressive voices to speak out. Beyond the unequivocal denunciation of all forms of racism, chauvinism and violence that targets Burma’s minorities, far-reaching solutions are urgently needed. In part, this will entail the creation of civic educational initiatives that will help people unlearn their default acceptance of all forms of racism. Beyond this, peace and reconciliation talks with all ethnic minority groups must be put in motion. These must tackle longstanding grievances such as the crushing of legitimate claims to political autonomy, the territorial distribution of power, and people-centered socioeconomic development.

In other words, there is a need for developing a new “big tent” model of democratic politics —beyond the understandable focus on institutional and electoral reform — in order to create a genuinely multicultural democracy.

Burmese people have survived several historical periods of oppression and depredation. Burmese society will outlive the half-century of tin pot dictatorship. We need not fear national disintegration as the result of cultural and ethnic diversity. The only thing we, as citizens, ought to fear is presence of racism and intolerance in our society, deliberately modulated and whipped up by an unreformable state. Only a society that reimagines itself as an inclusive, multicultural democracy—in which diversity is celebrated as a strength — can escape the iron cage of oppression.

- Dr Maung Zarni is one of the veteran founders of the Free Burma Coalition and a Visiting Fellow (2011-13) with Civil Society and Human Security Research Unit at the London School of Economics


Original Source here

What will happen when evils behave like saviours? What will happen when criminals play the role of saints? What will happen when people take them as their Demigods? Especially, when it happens in a country whose people have long been lived the lives under extreme poverty and of the salves, kept isolated from the rest of the world, made uneducated and ignorant and drown in the sea of extreme nationalism, what will be the ultimate outcomes? Look into Burma today. You will get the answers. General Burmese people who hardly have the chances to lead their lives with freedom and always been ruled under “Divide and Rule Policy,” who are brainwashed with ultra-nationalism or fanaticism and taught to see strangers as the threats on and on are today really showing the signs of extreme xenophobia. 

The extremists Buddhist Monks and the so-called democratic activists in Burma have played their respective roles to turn most Burmese into fanatics though the vital role that Burmese regime played in it can’t be denied. According to Buddha’s philosophy, everyone, Monks in particular, must show the loving kindness (Metta) towards all creatures irrespective to who or what they are. The edict NOT to KILL OR INFLICT PAINS on others (even on insects) is integral to Buddhist thought. Therefore, there are some people who argue that among the Buddhist Monks in Burma, there are some government’s spy agents in saffron who are instigating all the racial hatred towards the Xenos for the political gains. 

Look into the ongoing violence against Rohingyas in Arakan today, who are considered one of the world’s most persecuted people by United Nation and a people who have high possibility of extinction by Human Rights Watch (HRW). They are genealogically descendents of Indo-Aryans know to be the one of the earliest settlers of Arakan. Though they have been under systematic persecutions for decades, a major violence against them was prompted by the regime and Rakhine Extremists Politicians especially by the members of Rakhine National Development Party (RNDP) in last June and is still going on. Especially before the formation of RNDP, Rakhines and Rohingyas lived peacefully together though there were some minor problems between them. The regime and RNDP politicized all the differences between Rakhines and Rohingyas and made them a mountain out of a molehill to create the violence. 

Both the regime and RNDP have done it for their respective political gains. The regime has successfully diverted public attentions from the political and economic crises they were having, depopularized Daw Aung San Suu Kyi among some segments of Burmese society and international community, gained critically required public supports, discredited international media and eventually implemented their Nazi fascist policy of wiping out of Rohingya Muslims. As for RNDP, they are on their way to root out Rohingyas who have become the major barrier to achieving their long awaited dream of having an independent Arakan. Though they both are unanimously killing Rohingyas on the common hatred against Rohingyas, they have much dislikes against each other and are struggling for their different agendas. And not to forget that a unity based on someone’s hatred doesn’t last long. 

The regime and Rakhine extremists are leaving no stone unturned to cover up all their crimes against humanity in general and Rohingyas in particular. Knowing the degree of honour and importance given to Monks in the Burmese society, Regime and its allies are using them as the tool to discredit international media, UN organizations and NGOs. (UN organizations, NGOs and INGOs are some organizations that have been playing the crucial role in Burma to eradicate malnutrition, poverty and diseases and without them, millions of Burmese would have died). The radical Monks like Wirathu, abbot of the Damma-Thahaaya School of Mandalay New Masuyein Monastery are happily spreading anti-Muslim propaganda throughout Burma. Not to forget that Wirathu is the one who has led the killing of Muslim families and burning Muslim houses in Kyauk Se Township in central Burma. 

They are holding rallies against Rohingyas which is much like Nazi rally. Very recently, radical Monks protested against Rohingyas in Mandalay, the cultural centre of Burma. They condemned human rights organizations, NGOs etc and backed the President Thein Sein’s proposal to put all Rohingyas in the camps and subsequently send them to third countries as if Rohingyas have not been living there from the time of immemorial. They demanded that Nationalism must be given priority over humanism and human rights, which international community find hard to comprehend and is something that can’t be implemented in the time of great civilization today. To the radical Monks and extremist Buddhists, Rohingyas are inferior human beings. Buddhist Monks are not supposed to involve in the worldly affairs. Yet shockingly, they are involving, unlike before, in an affair which is against a people of about 3.5 million worldwide in particular and humanity in general. It is a slap to the face of Buddha and he would be much disgusted with them were he alive. 

Yet, there are few Buddhist Monks and some Burmese who think from the humanist point of view and say that Rohingyas must at least be given human rights which they have not been having under different regimes of Burma. Some of them are Zarganar (famous Burmese comedian), Dr. Maung Zarni (a research fellow at LSE), Ashin Gambira (a leader in 2007 saffron revolution) and so on. However, their voice hardly matters in a society which is almost full of fanatics. 

Nevertheless, who are behind all such Nazi-Styled rallies? They are undeniably the Burmese regime that has made Rohingyas as scapegoats like Chinese were made during anti-Chinese riot in 1967 throughout 1970s, the hypocritical Burmese democratic activists who define Democracy as “Of Burmese, By Burmese and For Burmese” and “Human Rights as Burmese Rights” and Rakhine politicians who want to separate Arakan from Burma. Awkwardly, the regime banned subsequent protests of the Monks. Why? The regime want to portray an image that they are not behind all such Nazi rallies and people are doing all that according their wish. The government is just preventing further violence to be taking place. Anyway, it is a good trick to deceive the international community. 

Rohingyas and the name “Rohingya” were unknown to most of the Burmese until 2010. When they came to know about them, it was in negative light. They are ill-informed about Rohingyas and their history. They are successfully branded as illegal Bengali invaders and threats to the existence of Buddhism. And the Military dictators who have been long known as evils in Burmese society have successfully portrayed them as the saviours of Buddhism, Sovereignty of the country and the protectors of purity of Burmese race. Therefore, it is not strange to see the various attacks coming against Rohingyas from the fanatic segment of Burmese society. In short, when the evils can behave like saviours and become dominant, goodness will cease to exist. 

 Saudi Arabia has donated $1 million to support rehabilitation programs of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) for Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar's northern Rakhine State.

The Saudi Ambassador to Myanmar met the UNHCR official at his office in Yangon on Monday and handed over a check for $1 million to support the programs aimed at education and health of the Rohingya Muslims who were attacked by Buddhists resulting in several deaths and torching of their settlements.

The Saudi envoy and the UNHCR official discussed measures to stop violence against Rohingya Muslims and the Kingdom's efforts to alleviate their sufferings.

The UNHCR official appreciated the generous support and referred to a recent order by King Abdullah to provide assistance worth $50 million to Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, Arab media reports said on Tuesday. 

by RTT Staff Writer

Sources Here :

Maungdaw, Arakan State: Nasaka (Burma’s border security force) personnel arrest and harass the Rohingya Muslims in Maungdaw south constantly without any obstacles. Many Rohingyas were arrested over the allegation that they were involved in the recent communal violence occurred which was happened on June 8, said a local elder on condition of anonymity.

Recently, some Rohingya villagers were arrested by Nasaka personnel from Udaung village under the Nasaka area No. 8 of Maungdaw Township. After arrest, they were detained in the camp and severely tortured. 

“Of them, some have been identified as Moulvi. Abdul Motalob (40), son of Noor Ahamed, Salim Ullah (45), son of Boduran, Majiullah (20), son of Salim Ullah, Eliyas (43), son of Kasim, Noor Kamal (18), son of Ibrahim, Iqbal (16), son of Ibrahim, Rahamat Ullah (25), son of Lal Meah, Leta (30), son of Amin, Zahid Hussain, son of Fazal,, Moulvi Anwar (70), son of Ahamed Hussain, Noor Mohamed (55), son of Tazu Mulluk, Lal Meah (55) son of Abdu Karim, Azi Rahaman (50), son of Lal Meah, Leta (50), son of Taqgul and Azimali (60). They all hailed from Udaung village tract of Maundaung township. They have been detained and severely tortured in the Nasaka camp and demanded huge money for their release.” 

“However, of them, six Rohingya villagers were recently released after paying Kayt 200,000 to 450,000 per head.” 

Again, yesterday night, four Rohingya villagers were also arrested from Udaung Village Tract by the Nasaka personnel of Udaung out-post camp under the Nasaka area No. 8. They are detained in the Nasaka camp, so far, according to a village elder that declined to be named. 

The four arrested have been identified as Shamsu (25), son of Ismail, Imran (22), son of Moulvi Hashim, Moulvi Nazim Ullah (27), son of Abdullah and Afzu Rahaman (22). They all belong to Udaung village tract. The Nasaka demanded money from them for their release, but they refused to pay the money. So, they are detained and beaten up continuously in the camp. 

One of the recently released arrestees after paying money said, “The arrested villagers are severely tortured to extort money. Even the stools of Nasaka are applied to the bodies of arrestees.” 

The situation in north Arakan State remains extremely bad as the concerned authorities continuously arrest, torture and extort money from Rohingya villagers though there is international pressure to Burma. It seems that the Burmese government does not take any care to the international community. The concerned authorities are implementing their policies against the Rohingya community as they like, said a local leader from Maungdaw Town preferring not to be named.

Sources : KPN

After Burma rejected the Asean chair’s call for an urgent meeting on Rohingya while it granted access to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and UN agencies, other Asean colleagues were left befuddled—trying to understand Naypyidaw’s attitude towards them. 

During the by-election in April, which brought about a near-total victory for the National League for Democracy, Burma shocked its Asean friends (including the Asean Secretariat) by inviting them to dispatch officials to join those from aboard in observing the country’s “free and fair” polls. 

Not all Asean members were happy about the move as they did not practice the kind of electoral process that engaged outside observers. Nonetheless, they cooperated in the spirit of Asean. 

In displaying further anachronistic attitude among the Asean ranks, Naypyidaw has also just lifted the blacklisted names of some 2,000 individuals barred entry into the country for decades; earlier it ended media censorship law as a show of the country’s readiness to open up further democratic space. 

In the coming months, new laws related to press freedom, public broadcasting, non-governmental organizations, promotion of the rule of law, accountability and transparency are in the pipeline. 

While the jury is still out, the rapid reform process is under close scrutiny by several of the bloc’s member states, especially the so-called CLMV (Cambodia, Laos, Burma and Vietnam). 

So far, the government’s concerted efforts have dual objectives: ending all economic sanctions and decades of international isolation. The first objective was partially fulfilled during the past several months when the West suspended or lifted partial sanctions pending further progress at home. Further liberalization and democratic reforms would encourage the complete end of all economic discriminations. Second, after decades of isolation, Burma has returned to the embrace of the international community, actively participating in a myriad of activities. 

That much was clear. However, when it comes to its once troubled relations with Asean, Naypyidaw has sent mix signals to their colleagues. For instance, Burma has maintained a distance with their Asean colleagues on the South China Sea dispute and the Rohingya issue. 

While Naypyidaw adopted a low profile on the controversial maritime disputes, in the human rights and democracy arena, however, it has been the opposite. Within the Asean context, it has made a great leap forward. 

Indeed, several conservative Asean members are full of trepidation watching the unfolding events there—trying to figure out the contagion effects on the organization in the long run. 

Burma’s ongoing media reforms have upgraded the country from the bottom ranks of various international media freedom indexes ahead of over half of its Asean colleagues. 

Following the Phnom Penh incident, questions were frequently asked about how reliable the future rotational chair will be, especially from the bloc’s new members. 

Asean was unable to issue a joint communiqué for the the first time in its 45-year history. 

Burma will assume the Asean chair in 2014. For years, the country fought vigorously to earn the rights to host the grouping’s annual meeting. When the country decided to skip the chair in 2005 at the Asean Summit in Vientiane, it was done under mounting peer pressure coupled with domestic constraints. 

Until last November, Asean’s leaders were still ambivalent about the 2014 chair; that was the reason they chose to “support” Burma’s chairmanship rather than “endorse” their joint statement in Bali. In addition, the speed of US-Burma diplomatic normalization also caught the grouping by surprise. Indeed, it was not wrong to say Asean was playing a catch-up game. 

This anxiety still reigns deep in the Asean psyche. At a summit retreat in April in Phnom Penh, one Asean leader urged President Thein Sein to invite their colleagues to Naypyidaw to observe the country’s progress towards reforms and its readiness to host series of Asean summit meetings in 2014. He felt that all the international limelight on Burma lacked an Asean dimension. 

Worse, news headlines at the time credited the growing international recognition of Naypyidaw to their military-backed government, even the once reviled leader Snr-Gen Than Shwe who received some praise after decades of condemnation. 

However, the Asean chair recently decided to scuttle the plan to have a retreat in Burma after some delays, much to the chagrin of officials in the Burmese capital. 

It is interesting to note the latent rivalry among the new members such as Cambodia and Burma, which has intensified after the latter had embarked on a democratization and economic reform process—narratives that Phnom Penh, especially among the Cambodian political elite, used to monopolize following the UN-backed election in 1993. 

There were incidents of bluffing between the two countries, which were highly visible within the Asean circle. On Aug. 10, Burma’s Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin was taken aback after he received a letter from Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong calling for a special meeting on the Rohingya without prior consultation. He said it was “a total surprise” and quickly turned down the plan within hours after receiving the chair’s invitation. Indonesia and Thailand, which initially supported the idea, later backed down. A week later, Asean agreed to issue a joint statement on the situation in Arakan State without calling a special meeting. 

With different histories and political cultures, Cambodia and Burma exhibit their independent thinking and preponderances. Asean remembered well when the two countries were approached by Thailand ahead of the establishment of Asean in August 1967. King Norodom Sihanouk dismissed Asean’s invitation on grounds of his nation’s well-known “permanent neutrality,” while Gen Ne Win cited the country’s “strict neutrality” as the main reason. 

Such deep-rooted values are being felt at present among the Asean members as they have been put on display, with some modifications in the case of Cambodia due to the new regional political landscape. 

When Naypyidaw chairs Asean in 2014, nobody knows whether the Thein Sein government will opt for the same principle with additional new shifts. Beginning July, the country is serving as the coordinating country of US-Asean relations. His government’s stance and comments will be closely monitored. 

A series of liberal reforms in Burma have already rattled both new and old members, especially those related to human rights protection and democratic promotion. 

Last November, a national commission on human rights was set up in Burma even though it was not yet functioning properly. More than the officials would like to admit, it has prompted Vietnam to take up a further challenge on human rights by applying for a membership in the UN Human Rights Council. 

Will Burma advocate amendments in the terms of reference (TOR) on Asean human rights practices and standards when it comes under review in 2014 or even go further in encouraging Asean to come up with a convention on human rights? 

When the TOR was drafted in 2009, Burma followed the hardline approach pursued by Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia. At recent meetings in Burma on the drafting of the Asean Declaration on Human Rights and the consultations with Asean-based civil groups in Kuala Lumpur, the Burmese delegation took up a much softer approach on rights protection. 

So far, despite the readiness of Asean and its Secretariat to assist Burma in its present reform process and the Rohingya crisis, officials there have relied more on non-Asean sources. A pattern has emerged—if it has to do with Asean, the government prefers assistance from individual Asean members or that without the collective Asean label. 

The behavior points to Burma’s growing diplomatic independence in dealing with Asean and the broader global community. The Burmese government’s halt of the construction of the Myitsone Dam in Kachin State after reports of negative impacts on the environment was another example. 

In other words, the country is slowly creating its own space within the body politics of Asean—which may or may not coincide with the grouping’s collective interests. 

Sources Here :

“At 4:00 AM yesterday, a joint group of different departments raided the Sky View Guest House. It is the Guest House which was mostly reserved by the police officer where he used to take the arrested Rohingyas to extort ransom money. Those Rohingyas who could not give the ransom money were tortured severely. The joint operation caught him with the millions of money extorted from innocent Rohingyas. In the raid, some Rohingyas were found detained in the guesthouse. These were Rohingyas who were unable to give the ransom amount of money the police officer demanded. 

We wish to express our heartfelt gratitude to the media who spread the news about the officer’s brutal acts. We would like to thank all the people who worked hard to make the news about his barbaric behavior reach to all the concerned quarters such as international human rights workers and president Thein Sein etc. We also plead the President to carry out the same kind of operations against the remaining cruel police officers who have been committing equal number of crimes against Rohingyas though not more. We would like to ask the home ministry how the same police officers are able to take charge of a place, Maung Daw, without any transfers for more than a decade” said a Rohingya from Maung Daw on the condition of anonymity. 

Besides, Dr. Nurul Haque, a Rohingya medical doctor from Maung Daw, has been sentenced to three-year-imprisonment for the possession of Bangladesh Phone SIM card. He was arrested soon after the violence against Rohingyas erupted in Arakan. It is to let everyone know that almost all Rakhines, Police Officers and others are using Bangladesh Cell Phone Lines. Rather, in many border areas, people use the phone network the neighboring countries as to their comfort ability. If the using of the phone network of the nearby countries is illegal, the law should be applied to all regardless of race and religion. Therefore, imprisoning only him for the possession of a SIM card is unjustified and illogical while Rakhines and police officers are continuing their use of the same SIM cards of the same phone lines. 

Moreover, there were many Rohingya scholars arrested in Maung Daw in 2008 and later time and sentenced to many years’ imprisonments with false cases. They are still serving imprisonments in different prisons in Arakan. Consequently, Rohingyas, today, hardly have any medical doctors and scholars. Therefore, Rohingyas from Maung Daw appeal the President to pardon and release Dr. Nurul Haque and all other Rohingya scholars. 

Myanmar Buddhist monks stage a rally to protest against ethnic minority Rohingya Muslims and to support Myanmar President Thein Sein's stance toward the sectarian violence that took place in June between ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims in western Myanmar, in Mandalay, central Myanmar, on Sunday. (AP/Khin Maung Win)

Sunday's rally in Mandalay is the latest indication of deep sentiment against the Rohingya minority after June violence with ethnic Rakhine Buddhists that left 80 people dead and tens of thousands displaced.

The monks held a banner saying, "Save your motherland Myanmar by supporting the president."

The monks held a banner saying, "Save your motherland Myanmar by supporting the president", while others criticised United Nations human rights envoy Tomas Ojea Quintana, who has faced accusations that he is biased in favour of the Rohingya. 

Rohingya in the region are confined to designated areas while all around them monks and authorities stoke anti-Muslim sentiment. And this disdain for the group seems to be receiving the tacit approval of the majority of Myanmar people _ with even Aung San Suu Kyi silent.

he violence started after it was reported on May 28 that a 26 year-old Buddhist woman had been raped and killed by Muslim men. Three Muslim men were detained the following day. 

The case lit the fuse for communal violence in the area and on June 3 about 300 Buddhists attacked a bus in Taungup, killing 10 Muslim men, reportedly in front of policemen and soldiers who did not intervene. 

It is difficult to determine exactly what happened next as there were no independent observers in the area and most people involved claim to have acted in self-defence, but within one week the state was plunged into in an orgy of violence that saw both Rakhine and Rohingya mobs torching houses and committing horrific acts of violence against one another. 

NEGLECTED: Rohingya at Taungup refugee camp about 10km from Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine State. 

According to a recent report by Human Rights Watch, security forces stood idly by at the outset of the violence before they began shooting at the Rohingya. At one point the conflict even threatened to spread to the rest of the country, prompting the government to declare a state of emergency in Rakhine State. 

Official estimates put the overall death toll at 78, a gross underestimate in the opinion of several human rights groups. Thousands of Rohingya refugees tried to flee to Bangladesh, only to be blocked, and sometimes shot, by Bangladeshi security forces. Now there are around 70,000 displaced people in the region, most of them Rohingya living in villages or camps around Sittwe, but also Rakhine people, mainly sheltered in Buddhist monastery camps. 

The city is now getting back to normal. Everything is peaceful and quiet now,'' said a local member of Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party, who, like many others in Sittwe, refused to be identified. 

His assessment seems correct at first glance. Apart from the curfew imposed by authorities, a sense of normalcy prevails downtown. 

However, that impression changes the further out one moves. All around the city, vast neighbourhoods were burned or destroyed during the riots. One of these is Narzi, a Muslim-majority quarter with a population of 10,000 on the outskirts of Sittwe. After being evacuated by authorities, it now gives the impression of a city devastated by a natural disaster or war. Its streets are deserted apart from the stray dogs and buildings on huge swathes of land have been razed to the ground by fire. 

It is known to the world that there has been a state-sponsored violence going on against Rohingyas with the cooperation of Rakhine extremists in Arakan of Burma. Rohingyas, old, young, children, educated, uneducated, religious leaders all alike, are being arrested and subsequently killed. Their women including under-aged girls are being raped. Their properties are being looted and torched. Mosques were locked and destroyed using bulldozers and there have been no five times prayer and Juma’at prayer in the mosques for more than two months. In short, they all are physically crippled and mentally demoralized. 

Though Rakhines are the main culprits of the crimes against Rohingyas, the involvement of Burmese government in the crimes is equally undeniable. When the Human Rights Watch (HRW) had rightly pointed out that the government did not stop but fuel the riot despite being able to stop it, the international community started to pressure the Burmese regime to accept international investigation teams. The regime well knows that if they allow the international investigation teams into Arakan, their crimes against Rohingyas in particular and against humanity in general will be exposed. 

Therefore, with the fear of being exposed, now President Thein Sein himself has set up an inquiry commission to investigate the ongoing crises in Arakan. Though one cannot expect impartial investigations when the culprits (Rakhines and the government) who started this ugly racism and committed all these crimes themselves have also taken charge of the investigation, yet investigation is an investigation and it needs to be carried out formally. In the investigation team, there are some neutral and good people who also are given the charge. 

Therefore, with a view to hiding the actual situation and deceiving the visiting investigation team, Rakhines in Maung Daw been rushing to set up temporary camps (tents) in rural areas all over Maung Daw. According to Rohingyas in Maung Daw, there are 100-200 tents that have already been built at almost every village. The few affected Rakhines during the riot are kept safe and sound in the monasteries in Maung Daw. Now, it is said that all Rakhines in Maung Daw will move to the temporary camps irrespective to rich, poor, affected or unaffected ones before the investigation team arrives to the region. Hence, they will stay there as long as there is the investigation team. 

Therefore, it is a clear move of Rakhines to deceive the world and investigation team so as to be able to cover up their crimes. “They are trying to portray a situation or condition in which they actually are not. They are trying to portray a situation to force people think that they all have become displaced. And it is all done according to the direction of Rakhine National Development Party (RNDP) in cooperation with local Rakhine authorities. The victimized Rohingyas in the region hope that the conspiracies and deceptions of the Rakhine extremists led by RNDP will become transparent and clearer to the international community as well as Burmese community” said A. Faiz, a victimized Rohingya, from Maung Daw. 

Abu Dhabi: The Khalifa Bin Zayed Humanitarian Foundation has sent a relief team to Myanmar to organise humanitarian aid for the Rohingya Muslims. This is in line with the directives of President His Highness Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan to provide emergency aid in the wake of the atrocities against the Rohingyas. 

The team, in collaboration with the Kuwaiti embassy in Myanmar, has started relief operations, which include distribution of essential food and other supplies.

The Khalifa Foundation also brought three ambulance vehicles for emergency evacuations.

Sources Here :